Methodist beliefs about interracial dating

On June 17 in Charleston, Roof had sat and listened for nearly an hour as a group of 12 studied a passage from the Gospel of Mark.

Then, authorities say, he opened fire with a gun he received as a present for his 21st birthday. Clementa Pinckney, slain at Emanuel, had once pastored Campbell, and had mentored Black.

It was as if he had not felt the shock waves of the crime that unsettled the nation.

The young man’s awkward body language, disapproving sighs and eye-rolling only made the congregants more nervous as they tried to focus on Scripture.

Photo couretsy of REUTERS/Carlo Allegri *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-HAM-OPED, originally transmitted on Oct. Dylann Roof, right, the 21-year-old man charged with murdering nine worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.

C., on June 17, 2015, listens to the proceedings with assistant defense attorney William Maguire during a hearing at the Judicial Center in Charleston on July 16, 2015.

Photo courtesy REUTERS/Randall Hill *Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-CHARLESTON-ANNIVERSARY, originally transmitted on June 8, 2016.

It was as if he hadn’t heard about Dylann Roof, his white supremacist manifesto and his intention to start a race war.